To be perfectly honest with you, I think the winner of last night’s debate was … Elizabeth Warren. That makes two in a row.
Our friend Deb T has a take on the debates that I can find little to disagree with. I don’t want to get into a name-calling argument here, although El Jefe probably does and that’s fine, but here’s what Deb T thinks and I pretty much agree with.
Stipulating at the top that I’m just an old coot, and my free advice is worth every penny you’re paying for it.
The most delightful thing last night was Marianne Williamson saying that any candidate can come up with plans, which are the superficial way of doing politics, but only she can beat Trump because rather than meat, she has the slogans! She is one box short of becoming the neighborhood crazy cat lady.
Harris stands out for her prosecutor’s ability to press, clearly and with passion, bright-line right vs wrong arguments. She’s also passionate and her camp is prepared. I’d still LOVE to see her on SCOTUS but it’s her life and she would probably make a good President.
Buttigieg stands out for his ability to convey command of complexity, understanding of opposing perspectives, and strong values. He owns his flaws and mistakes and isn’t guilty of letting his ambition get in the way of his day job. People respect that.
Harris and Buttigieg have very different kinds of debating skills, both made very good use of them. But debating skills aren’t everything.
Warren stands out for her ability to articulate actual plans for change and her willingness to be honest about the costs of those plans. She’s the sharpest pencil in the box. She’s also one of the most passionate, this is her life’s work and she has a compelling back story to prove it.
As to Bernie, decrying the failure of politicians to deliver change over the last 40 years sounds less effective when, like Sanders, you’re a 77-year-old politician running against younger politicians. Furthermore, when asked about Medicare for All implementation, Sanders leans more heavily on platitudes than you’d think for someone who’s been running for 5 years. Bernie sees himself as revolutionary. Now don’t get me wrong, revolutionaries have their place but they don’t always make great leaders. They don’t always know how to get things done. He also refuses to back out if he’s not the nominee. He is NOT a Democrat, prediction – the moment he doesn’t get the nomination he’ll tell everyone to get off his lawn!
Missed in the shuffle last night – Maddow reads a quote from Sanders from 2013.
Sanders: “That’s a mischaracterization.”
Maddow: “It’s a quote of yours.”
Biden, to me, he looked completely unprepared. He remains the nice Uncle who brings you groceries and slips you $20 for beer, when you are in college. He’s, like me, an old dog who’s finding it increasingly difficult to learn new tricks. I’m sorry about this, I genuinely like Joe and I’m feeling like this is one of those cases where the family should have told him he’d done a great job, reminded him that he has a great reputation, is beloved by many, has the capacity to become a king maker and then taken away the car keys for the good of all and sundry.
FWIW, “Eric Swalwell asked Joe Biden to pass the torch. Kamala Harris just took it.”
Amy Klobuchar was overshadowed last night. She may not become a front-runner. But…it is worth recommending she is one of the most effective and smartest legislators the Democratic Party has. Klobuchar, like O’Rourke, declined to embrace Castro’s idea to make illegal border crossing a civil, not criminal, violation. I appreciate her smarts and her pragmatism.
Proof that Julian Castro had an impact on night one: The concerns he raised about decriminalizing illegal border crossings on Night One led to a 5-minute conversation about it on Night Two.
Don’t discount Booker. Delaney and Bennet may still have life in them.
Someone needs to explain the GAI math to Andrew Yang.
Final observations:
It’s worth remembering, as we Dems wake up thrilled at prospect of Harris challenging Trump in debates, that Hillary Clinton thrashed Trump in 2016 debates and yet…
Yes Hillary had tons of baggage but any Dem nominee will have baggage by fall of 2020.
Honest question: are people really calling decriminalization of illegal entry “open borders”? Because while admittedly I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV (nor have I stayed the night at a Holiday Inn), but I always thought there was a difference between civil and criminal violations. I heard most of them say they were endorsing civil penalties rather than criminal ones, which would allow families to stay together and which incidentally would cost taxpayers less. Yet today the tube is full of open borders!
Here’s the thing, as long as we have for profit prisons we will have prisons and we’ll also have draconian laws to fill them. This is a problem that could be solved IF the BS and $$$ we’re taken out of the equation.
